Kyoto propaganda does not deal the straight goods
In Kyoto, as in war, truth is the first victim
In these days of angst and war-talk, truth’s victim status is receiving a boost. All sides in Bush’s fight against those agin’ him are taking truth’s name in vain these days. The arbitrary and polarized nature of America’s raging bull is a worry for all of us, but Bush is not the only party guilty of putting the boots to truth in the back alley.
Premier Klein and the oil and gas junkies known as the Alberta government have found the will to play as fast and loose with the truth as any freedom-saving American president. Of course, they are not in a war with terrorists – those international criminals have the oil industry’s best interests at heart. The Klein gang of great carbon protectors is duking it out with those evil environmental do-gooders, the federal government of Canada.
The battleground over Kyoto is as vague as the war on terrorism. Only in Canada, however, does the combination of provincial power and oil reserves produce a life and death – or at least a jobs or dole – struggle between the two levels of government over emissions.
The constitutional knot that is Canada leaves Alberta in charge of the province’s natural resources and Canada in charge of negotiating and administering international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol. Over the years, the federal government has been consistent in using every tool at its disposal to expand its paltry powers – legal wrangling, bribery and now international agreements that infringe provincial jurisdiction.
As in most other forays into provincial jurisdiction, the federal government’s Kyoto campaign is remarkable only for its bad timing, poor planning and even worse communication. On the outside, it makes the feds look arrogant. It also gives Premier Klein plenty of room to scorch the minds of Albertans with a wall of misinformation, misdirection and hypocrisy.
According to Klein, Kyoto will devastate Alberta’s economy. Thousands of jobs will be lost. The U.S. will not sign Kyoto, leaving Alberta companies at a terrible disadvantage. All of this economic chaos will not even improve the environment – besides, there is no proof that humans caused all this global warming in the first place.
Debunking the above statements is not the point of this article, but, for the record, here is a brief rebuttal. Alberta’s economy will not be destroyed. Just as free trade changed Canada’s economy, Kyoto will change Alberta’s. We will have to use our education and skills to become less dependent on carbon energy – something the Alberta government has been trying to accomplish for decades.
Thousands of jobs will be lost, just as they are being lost in our pre-Kyoto world – Statistics Canada recently reported that farming has lost 26 per cent of its full-time jobs in the last three years. And thousands of jobs will be created at the same time – that is what happens during economic transitions.
America not signing Kyoto might be bad for much of Canada, but not Alberta. The U.S. soaks up about 50 per cent of our oil and gas exports – oil and gas are 60 per cent of our total exports to the U.S. – and that will only increase under George ‘The Driller" Bush.
Meeting the commitments of Kyoto will help break the cycle of increasing energy consumption in which we are trapped. As every seven-step process preaches, breaking the cycle is the first critical step towards beating an addiction. Global warming is happening. It has happened before, but it took thousands of years, not 50. Climate change is not the issue here – rapid climate change is.
None of this matters to Klein, who, like all politicians, must take care of those who take care of him. Given an opportunity by the vacuum left by the federal government, the Alberta government has filled the breach with its own fanciful interpretation of Kyoto. The Kleinites demand proof of warming, but provide no information to support their own contentions of economic catastrophe.
Klein even criticized the fed’s consultation with the provinces on Kyoto, claiming valid consultation required a complete hearing and resolution of Alberta’s concerns. This charming perspective on what constitutes valid consultation should come as a shock to anyone who has been consulted by the Klein government. The province produces two publications after each consultation – one is called What We Heard and the second describes what they will do. The two rarely find common ground.
The sad joke is that Klein’s fearmongering may end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy that turns into irony. Albertans are still digesting the latest propaganda, but the business community is rather more edgy these days. Klein’s unsubstantiated doom and gloom predictions are causing companies to rethink about investing in Alberta’s energy industry. If the investment stops, jobs will be lost.
Kyoto propaganda and the outrageous price spikes caused by electricity deregulation may end up doing more to cut Canadian emissions and energy consumption than any federal program. |
